Adaptation: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Script Series)
by Charlie Kaufman, Robert McKee
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Book Summary Information
Author: Charlie Kaufman, Robert McKeeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-12-19
ISBN: 1557045119
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Newmarket Press
Book Reviews of Adaptation: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Script Series)
Book Review: This is about a screenplay.. not a book.
Summary: 5 Stars
Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman (film dir. by Spike Jonze) is, like the name might imply, about adaptation. Many critics of this script complain that it fails to be truthful to Suzanne Orlean's novel "The Orchid Thief," but I disagree. The first point to make I've already said: it's about adapting a book. There are plenty of references to the orchid thief, and this script is inextricably linked with the book, but the novel, as Kaufman says in the movie "is a beautiful book about flowers... I just want to make a movie about flowers" (not an actual quote, but it's kinda' close to what he says throughout). The script constantly praises the novel, but the movie is really about what it takes to write a screenplay, and is therefore almost more of a creative work than an actual adaptation.
As such, the screenplay is excellent. It is witty, careful, and through many twists and turns, becomes the very item that it claims, maybe even strives, to not be: a product of hollywood. What makes this movie more than a car-chase-sex-scene-drugs-love-insert-archetypical-theme-here kinda' movie is the fact that Kaufman's writing is brilliant. He tastefully inserts every single hollywood cliche from theme song to personal struggle into the film in a way that won't make you puke. Instead of being a lame rehash, adaptation leaves the viewer wondering what it really was that just took place. The story is well-paced, characters are stongly developed, and plot twists don't feel thrown in at the last moment: you feel that this could honestly happen, at least most of the time. While it strays significantly from the orchid thief, the script stands well on its own two legs, slinking through the plot in a way that will grab you before you even realize it--then turns you on your head. Both the book and script are great literary works, but, even with their strong kinship, it's best to view them separately, rather than attack the latter for it's liberal use of the former.
Summary of Adaptation: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Script Series)
One of the most talked about scripts of the year, Adaptation is the story of an orchid collector (Chris Cooper), a journalist (Meryl Streep, as author Susan Orlean), and the screenwriter (Charlie Kaufman, played by Nicolas Cage) who, in adapting Orlean's bestselling book The Orchid Thief, writes himself and his twin brother (also played by Cage) into the movie.
In the foreword, written exclusively for this Newmarket edition, Orlean reveals her own struggle to tell the story of the orchid, and her delight that ?strangely, marvelously, hilariously, Kaufman's screenplay has ended up not being a literal Adaptation of my book, but a spiritual one.?
In a fascinating interview, Kaufman and Jonze take readers behind the scenes of Adaptation and their other films to speak about how they collaborate, where truth and fiction diverge, the challenges of balancing various storylines, why they do not like to comment on the meaning of their work, and Kaufman's approach to writing:"I try to write in the midst of confusion and be strong enough to stay there, rather than swim to the shore of some kind of conclusion."
Finally, screenwriting guru Robert McKee's commentary attempts to analyze Kaufman's work, identifying many of his themes including "that grand twentieth-century preoccupation with the Self."
In the acclaimed Newmarket Shooting Script® series format, the book includes the complete screenplay, Orlean's foreword, the interview with Kaufman and Jonze, McKee's critical commentary, 24 black-and-white stills, and cast and crew credits.
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